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Minister: Algeria's Steel Industry Set to Soar

Jijel is set to become a major industrial hub in North Africa and Arab world with the commissioning of the steel complex of Bellara by the end of April.

Bellara steel complex, which is the second in Algeria after that of El Hadjar in Annaba (600-km east of Algiers), is the fruit of a partnership based on 49:51 rule with SIDER and the National Investment Fund and Qatar Steel International. The steel complex will begin, in the few coming days, production tests with an annual capacity of 2 million tons of iron for building, before reaching 5 million tons.

The construction works, launched in March 2015 by Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, in the industrial park of Bellara (45km east of Jijel) have progressed at a fast pace with a view to meeting the deadlines, the assistant General Manager of AQS (Algerian-Qatari steel), Sofiane Chaib Setti told APS.

The complex, worth over US$2 billion, would help to achieve Algeria's self-sufficiency in iron and steel products, said Minister of Industry and Mining Abdeslam Bouchouareb, adding that the country's import bill hit US$10 billion in 2011.